A program for potential diplomats and first-contact representatives, the Diplomatic and Exocultural Relations College provides courses that teach advanced methods of interspecies relations.

Attendance at the Diplomatic and Exocultural Relations College is open to Starfleet personnel who pass an evaluation and approval of their faculty advisor. All applicants to the exocultural program must first pass CMN 498 First Contact.

The college offers several individual programs tailored to specific needs. The diplomacy program includes mediation, intergalactic affairs, and exocultural affairs specialties of study. A separate group focuses on first contact and survey team studies.

Diplomacy classes last four weeks and build upon the basic foundations provided by Starfleet training. Group sizes remain small to focus on individual skills and talents. Workshops and interactive discussions facilitate a better understanding of the critical steps is a successful negotiation. Instructors grade students on their application of diplomatic principles through simulated exercises with a variety of species and situations. These simulations recreate first-contact situations, hostile negotiations, and delicate arbitrations.

The exocultural portion of the college received must praise in the past several years for its outstanding developments. Specialists train personnel in the observation, study, and first contact of lifeforms. Live exercises and practical skills make this program especially valuable.

Students review first-contact reports in the context of their training, and practice their observation and interaction techniques in holographic environments with computer controlled cultures. During the four-week program instructors with practical experience in the field share their first-hand knowledge from assignments.

Located on the eastern side of the Academy campus, the college boasts an extensive cultural and species library. In addition to its permanent staff, it draws from the Academy's communications and sociology instructors and several guest speakers from the Federation Diplomatic Service and Starfleet's First Contact Division.

PSYC-A 550. Personality Dynamics in Diplomacy

This course examines leading theories of personality's affect on diplomacy interactions among various species. It analyzes the roles of such factors as environment, social learning, training, mental disorders, intelligence, creativity, and family structure on a diplomat's personality. Emphasis on application for personal growth, interpersonal relationships, organizational processes, and projection of self.

Students review cases of diplomatic conflict and resolution between Federation members and negotiation accounts Federation members and negotiation accounts between Starfleet and other interstellar powers. To pass the course participants must complete a thesis analyzing one prominent diplomat of their choice and the role that person's psychology played during his career.

SOC-A 390. Issues in Species Diversity

This course focuses on the issues, challenges, and opportunities presented by species diversity in the Federation. Emphasis on workplace topics related to diversity in terms of species, sex (or lack thereof), race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and cultural background. Participants study species diversity within political situations, including various reports from Starfleet's Diplomatic Corps. This class includes the readings of Martin Luther King, Jr., Surak, Gronnin of Tellar, and Droh'vahn. Students must write one weekly paper on diversity and submit a final project culminating in an analysis of their own species' tendencies in cultural relations.